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on Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, and Wages |
| By: | Shirshikova, Alina (ROA / Human capital in the region); Cörvers, Frank (RS: GSBE MORSE, RS: FdR Institute ITEM, RS: GSBE - MACIMIDE, ROA / Human capital in the region); Montizaan, Raymond (RS: GSBE UM-BIC, ROA / Labour market and training); Pfeifer, Harald (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Labour market and training) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether the social, digital, and analytical skills of job applicants, as well as their knowledge about the profession, can mitigate ethnic disparities in entry-level positions in the labour market. We conducted a survey experiment among a large, nationally representative sample of German firms that hire apprentices. We asked recruiters to evaluate the probability of inviting fictitious applicants to a job interview based on randomised characteristics, including ethnicity, skill quality, gender, time of residence, and education level. Our results show heterogeneous effects of skills on ethnic discrimination. While social skills help alleviate discrimination, our results indicate that discrimination intensifies at higher levels of knowledge about the profession, implying greater disparities due to ethnic discrimination at the top of the skill distribution. We also found that the effect of skills differs depending on the ethnicity of the applicant. |
| JEL: | I24 J15 J23 J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–12–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2025002 |
| By: | Forsberg, Erika (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Individuals working in larger labor markets tend to earn more than those working in smaller labor markets, but the reason for this is still unclear. This paper studies whether larger cities provide better occupational skill matches by combining machine learning techniques with data on individuals’ productive skills matched with employer data to construct a novel measure of match quality. I show that occupational skill-match quality is higher for individuals living in large local labor markets. Conditional on skills, differences in match quality explain around 30 percent of the city-size wage gap. The higher match quality in larger labor markets is related to a more diversified occupation structure and more learning possibilities in these markets. |
| Keywords: | Matching; Agglomeration; Occupational choice |
| JEL: | J24 J31 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–12–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_024 |
| By: | Umkehrer, Matthias (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany ; Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | "In this paper, I study how the introduction of the nationwide minimum wage in Germany affects career outcomes of young workers who have just entered the labour market. The institutional setting, administrative micro data, and predicted minimum wage exposure allow estimating the causal effects of the policy by comparing cohorts initially affected by the minimum wage or not, while accounting for selection into educational track, endogenous timing of entry, changes in cohort composition, and macroeconomic conditions. Affected cohorts showed higher earnings, but no reduced employment. They worked somewhat more hours, were more likely to start careers at larger and higher-paying employers, less likely to perform occupations more exposed to the minimum wage, and less likely to carry out routine manual or menial tasks. According to these results, the minimum wage does not harm the education-to-work transition, but impacts the mix of both firms and occupations in the labour market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| JEL: | J23 J38 J88 |
| Date: | 2025–12–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202516 |
| By: | Dominik Boddin; Thilo Kroeger |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the labor market impact of structural change by distinguishing between industry- and occupation-based measures of manufacturing and service employment. Using German data from 1975–2019, we find that 67% of manufacturing jobs lost in manufacturing industries are offset by new manufacturing jobs in service industries. Linking these aggregate patterns to worker-level outcomes, we show that the severity of displacement costs depends on the occupation–sector characteristics of the next job. Workers who retain manufacturing occupations in the service sector experience employment trajectories comparable to those remaining in manufacturing, indicating that structural change is less disruptive than commonly perceived. |
| Keywords: | Employment Structure, Structural Change, Displacements, Layoffs, Occupations, Manufacturing decline, Germany |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J24 J31 J63 L23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2144 |
| By: | Manh-Duc Doan (Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Suite 305 - 307, 12 Trang Thi Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi) |
| Abstract: | Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment–the Vietnam-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA)–I investigate the impact of trade liberalization on children's human capital investment in Vietnam. Using regional variation in export tariff uncertainty due to the BTA, I find that children in provinces more exposed to tariff reductions were more likely to engage in work rather than attend school, and this effect persisted for 20 years after the BTA. Additionally, the effects were more pronounced among boys, older children, rural children, and those with less-educated parents. These negative effects are driven by the increase in job opportunities, i.e., the child labor incidence, and the wage premium in the higher exposure provinces. The findings indicate that trade liberalization has increased the opportunity cost of education. These results remain robust across various alternative estimations. |
| Keywords: | trade agreement, tariff reduction, schooling, child labor, Vietnam |
| JEL: | F14 F16 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:0197 |
| By: | Engbom, Niklas (NYU – Stern); Malmberg, Hannes (Minnesota); Porzio, Tommaso (Columbia); Rossi, Federico (University of Warwick); Schoellman, Todd (Minneapolis Fed) |
| Abstract: | Chandler (1977) shows that large firms require hierarchies of white-collar workers to coordinate complex production. We document that this insight continues to hold globally today, and we show that low education levels in developing countries limit the supply of white-collar workers and constrain firm size. We extend the occupational choice model of Lucas (1978) to allow entrepreneurs to reorganize their firms by allocating administrative tasks to hired professionals, which brings the firm closer to constant returns to scale. We calibrate the model to be consistent with cross-sectional microdata and validate it using quasi-experimental and experimental evidence on the effects of educational expansions and management training interventions. Skills explain two-thirds of the reorganization of production into large firms with economic development, while structural transformation and reductions in barriers are needed to explain the remaining shift |
| Keywords: | skills ; white-collar workers ; returns to scale ; firm size ; endogenous duality |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1591 |
| By: | Garcia-Couto, Santiago |
| Abstract: | This paper constructs harmonized, multi-dimensional measures of occupational task intensities for the United States from 1980-2014 by reconciling the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and O*NET. The resulting indices allow task intensities to vary within occupations over time and are linked to Census and ACS microdata. I document a pronounced rise in the importance of cognitive tasks -"cognitive dominance"- driven by both increasing task intensity and higher associated wage gradients. This mechanism helps explain three major labor-market trends: wage polarization, the rising college wage premium, and the narrowing gender wage gap, with most task changes occurring within occupations. |
| Date: | 2025–12–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:bcyk6_v1 |
| By: | Hollandt, Nils Torben; Müller, Steffen |
| Abstract: | Spatial segregation of low- and high-wage workers is a persistent economic issue with broad social implications. Using social security data and an AKM wage decomposition, this paper examines spatial wage inequality in West Germany. Spatial inequality in log wages rose sharply between 1998 and 2008, mainly due to increased variance in worker pay premiums across regions (48%) and stronger positive spatial assortative matching of workers and establishments (40%), i.e. colocation. Changes in establishment wage premia are mostly unrelated to rising colocation whereas labor mobility even reduced it. Instead, growth in worker pay premiums among stayers was concentrated in regions where high-wage workers and high-wage establishments were overrepresented already in the 1990s and, thus, magnified pre-existing colocation leading to 'colocation without relocation'. Germany's rising trade surplus, especially with Eastern Europe, boosted stayers' worker pay premiums in those ex-ante high-wage regions and fully explains rising colocation. |
| Keywords: | assortative matching, colocation, international trade and wages, regionalmobility |
| JEL: | J31 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:333940 |
| By: | Elif Tasar; John Voorheis |
| Abstract: | We are the first to study how inheritances affect labor supply in the U.S. using large-scale administrative data. Leveraging federal tax and Social Security records, we estimate event studies around parental death to investigate impacts on adult children. Our results indicate that the death of a last parent causes sizable gains in investment income—our main proxy for inheritances—and proportionate reductions in labor supply. On average, annual per-adult investment income at the tax unit level increases by about $300 (45 percent) and annual per-adult wage earnings decrease by $600 (2 percent). These earnings responses are large relative to the implied wealth transfer. Income effects are the dominant channel through which parental death reduces earnings, with children of wealthier parents exhibiting larger earnings reductions. Over six years, inheritances slightly equalize the distribution of investment income. |
| Keywords: | labor supply, inheritance, aging, household finance, wealth inequality |
| JEL: | J22 D64 D31 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-71 |
| By: | Godøy, Anna; Isaksen, Elisabeth |
| Abstract: | Many governments have set ambitious climate goals that require a shift away from fossil fuel-intensive industries toward climate-neutral jobs. We use rich administrative register data to estimate green wage premiums in the presence of nonrandom sorting of workers across firms. On average, green firms pay statistically significant and economically meaningful wage premiums, consistent with a pattern of rent-sharing in high-revenue, highly innovative green firms. The premium is larger for non-college workers and those in low-skilled occupations. However, the average estimated wage premium for high-carbon firms is roughly twice as large as the green wage premium. This finding suggests that while the expansion of high-wage green firms may help mitigate the earnings losses associated with decarbonization, it is unlikely to fully offset them. |
| Keywords: | green jobs; wage premium; polluting jobs; employment; technology |
| JEL: | J31 J21 Q52 Q55 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130458 |
| By: | Oscar Valencia; Alfredo Villca; Carolina Ulloa-Suárez; Gustavo Sánchez |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the macroeconomic and fiscal benefits of reducing inefficiencies in public sector wages, with a focus on the public–private wage premium. Using cross-country empirical evidence, along with a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model calibrated to Latin America and the Caribbean, we show that narrowing the wage gap yields substantial benefits. A one percentage point reduction in the premium improves the primary balance, lowers debt, and raises output and private employment, without generating inflationary pressures. Extensions show that the adjustment mechanism is key: gains are larger and faster when wage rigidities are limited and reforms are sustained, while employment cuts provide stronger fiscal relief at higher economic costs. These results underscore the importance of efficient and well-designed compensation policies in enhancing fiscal sustainability and promoting long-term macroeconomic stability. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy; Wage premium; fiscal sustainability; DSGE models; Local Projections; Welfare. |
| JEL: | E62 H50 J31 J45 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2025-49 |
| By: | Hazell, Joe; Taska, Bledi |
| Abstract: | Wage rigidity is an important explanation for unemployment fluctuations. In benchmark models wages for new hires are key, but there is limited evidence on this margin. We use wages posted on vacancies, with job and establishment information, to measure the wage for new hires. We show that our measure of the wage for new hires is rigid downward and flexible upward, in two steps. First, wages change infrequently at the job level, and fall especially rarely. Second, wages do not respond to rises in unemployment, but respond strongly to falls in unemployment. Job information is crucial for detecting downward rigidity. |
| Keywords: | wage regidity; unemployment; business cycles |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J23 J31 J63 M51 |
| Date: | 2025–12–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:125326 |
| By: | Quang-Thanh Tran (Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Suite 305 - 307, 12 Trang Thi Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how higher education incentives affect fertility decisions and influence long-term economic growth using an R&D-based growth overlapping-generations model with endogenous education/career choice. In this model, higher education plays a dual role – it increases earnings for skilled labor and technological progress but also discourages childbearing. When the fertility of skilled workers is sufficiently low, too many higher education pursuers may lead to a long-run secular stagnation where technology and population remain constant or even a persistent population decline. To avoid these scenarios, regulating access to higher education may be necessary, although it could impose welfare loss on some generations following the policy’s introduction. |
| Keywords: | career choice, endogenous fertility, overlapping generations, higher education |
| JEL: | E13 J11 J13 J14 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:0198 |
| By: | Quang-Thanh Tran (Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Suite 305 - 307, 12 Trang Thi Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-term consequences of population decline in a quality-ladder endogenous growth framework. The key factor in fertility decisions is child-rearing costs, modeled as a convex function of labor productivity. As technology grows, the costs of raising children (including childbearing, childcare, and educational investments) increase disproportionately. While the economy may experience rapid growth in the early stages of development, it is likely to face sharp contractions in both population and innovation as child-rearing costs outpace the incentives for having children. We show that consistent population decay is almost inevitable. Nevertheless, a pronatalist policy can increase the likelihood of achieving high long-run labor productivity and living standards for future generations, although some short-run welfare deficits are to be expected. |
| Keywords: | quality-ladder growth, overlapping generations, endogenous fertility |
| JEL: | E13 J13 J14 J22 J24 O11 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:0199 |
| By: | Neil Ferguson; Tatiana Orozco García |
| Abstract: | An increasing proportion of the world’s poor live in fragile states, and efforts to build economic and social stability increasingly focus on those settings. Fragility harms the political and economic ecosystem, as well as individual endowments. Interventions that only focus on overcoming individual constraints might be insufficient. Support for entrepreneurs to overcome skills or credit constraints might have limited impacts if local economies cannot sustain the businesses they start, limiting impact on economic and social stability. This paper tests the effect of SME support in the context of localized development, which aims to develop local economies by boosting individual entrepreneurship capacity in demand-driven growth sectors. The intervention increased business startup and registration, but the relative income of beneficiaries declined. Moreover, for beneficiaries with positive outcomes, there are associated impacts on social outcomes, including reduced tolerance of violence, increased trust, and increased social participation. |
| Keywords: | economic development, entrepreneurship, fragility, jobs programmes, poverty, social stability |
| JEL: | D74 J24 L26 O12 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:447 |
| By: | Guillem Blasco-Piles (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first aggregate and disaggregated comprehensive Total Factor Productivity estimates for manufacturing in the Ottoman, Qing and Russian Empires before their collapse, incorporating both the traditional industry and capital estimates. Previous studies relied on modern-only establishments and labor productivity estimates, masking the role of capital and inner economic dynamics, which become essential during structural transformation processes. Using industrial censuses from 1908-1913 and regional reports combined with a novel reconstruction methodology for the traditional industry TFP, our results document extreme internal productivity dualism. Mechanized establishments achieved close to British efficiency levels while traditional non-mechanized plants operated at one-fifth to one-third of the industrial leader. At the aggregate level, lower-productivity traditional establishments seem to determine the aggregate productivity due to their vast weight in the manufacturing landscape. These findings suggest the persistence of the Great Divergence stemmed not from technological adoption incapacity but from the inability to diffuse new technologies beyond modern industrial enclaves—a pattern that illuminates persistent dualism in developing economies today. |
| Keywords: | Empires, Industrialization, Total Factor Productivity, Traditional Industry, Dualism |
| JEL: | L16 L60 N10 N60 O33 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0291 |
| By: | Charness, Gary; Cobo-Reyes, Ramon; Garcia-Couto, Santiago; Meraglia, Simone; Sanchez, Angela |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a field experiment to study whether potential anticipation of gender discrimination affects requested wages. People interested in an advertised position can apply using an online portal. After the initial application, participants are randomly allocated to one of three treatments. In the baseline treatment, applicants are asked to fill in a standardized curriculum vitae template, containing information about the applicant’s first name, surname, age, education, and employment. In a gender-blind treatment, applicants complete a curriculum vitae template in which they can only report their initials, so that information about gender is not transmitted. We also conduct a gender-blind treatment in which applicants receive a message emphasizing that the selection is conducted based on merits. In all treatments, applicants request the hourly wage they wish to receive if hired. We find that female applicants ask for just over half the wage requested by male applicants when the full name is revealed. However, when gender is undisclosed this difference in requests decreases by over 50%. Finally, the reinforcing message (third treatment) causes the gap in requested wages to completely disappear. Our results indicate that female workers request much lower wages when the firm clearly knows the applicant’s gender, but that this lower request is dependent on whether they perceive that one’s gender is known to the hiring firm. |
| Date: | 2025–12–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:tswg9_v1 |
| By: | Gaurav Khanna; Carlos Medina; Anant Nyshadham; Daniel Ramos-Menchelli; Jorge Tamayo; Audrey Tiew |
| Abstract: | Neighborhoods are strong determinants of both economic opportunity and criminal activity. Does improving connectedness between segregated and unequal parts of a city predominantly import opportunity or export crime? We use a spatial general equilibrium framework to model individual decisions of where to work and whether to engage in criminal activity, with spillovers across the criminal and legitimate sectors. We match at the individual level various sources of administrative records from Medellín, Colombia, to construct a novel, granular dataset recording the origin and destination of both workers and criminals. We leverage the rollout of a cable car in an event study design, and show how access to transit lines reduces criminal participation and induces legitimate employment. We identify key parameters of the model, informing how changes in transportation costs causally affect the location and sector choices of workers and criminals. Our counterfactual exercises indicate that, when improving the connectedness of neighborhoods, overall criminal activity in the city is reduced, and total welfare is improved. *****RESUMEN: Los vecindarios son importantes determinantes tanto de las oportunidades económicas como de la actividad criminal. Mejorar la conectividad de vecindarios segregados y pobres, con el resto de la ciudad, importará oportunidades a esos vecindarios, o exportará crimen desde ellos? Nosotros utilizamos un modelo de equilibrio general para modelar las decisiones individuales de dónde trabajar y de si involucrarse en actividades criminales, incorporando efectos sobre los sectores criminal y legal. Construimos una novedosa base de datos a nivel individual con base en varios registros administrativos de Medellín, Colombia, que incluye el origen y el destino tanto de los empleados como de los criminales. Nosotros provechamos la construcción de varias líneas de cable del Metro de Medellín, y mostramos cómo el acceso a las estaciones conectadas por estos cables reduce la participación en actividades criminales e incrementa el empleo formal. También identificamos varios parámetros del modelo que nos permiten estimar, cómo los cambios en los costos del transporte, afectan de forma causal, la ubicación y la elección sectorial, de empleados y criminales. Nuestro ejercicio contrafactual indica que, cuando se mejora la conectividad de los vecindarios, la criminalidad total de la ciudad se reduce, y el bienestar total se incrementa. |
| Keywords: | urban transit infrastructure, crime, Medellín, spatial equilibrium, Infraestructura de transporte urbano, crimen, equilibrio espacial |
| JEL: | F14 J24 J46 K42 O17 R40 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:1334 |
| By: | John M. Barrios; Brian C. Fujiy; Petro Lisowsky; Michael Minnis |
| Abstract: | We examine how differences in financial reporting practices shape firm productivity. Leveraging new audit questions in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey (MOPS), and complementary tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and detailed financial records from Sageworks, we find that (i) variation in reporting quality explains 10-20 percent of intra-industry total factor productivity dispersion, and (ii) evidence of complementarity between the effects of financial audits and management practices driving firm productivity. We then examine the underlying mechanisms. First, audits function as a managerial technology, improving the precision of internal information and raising efficiency, with stronger effects in competitive, low-margin industries and among younger firms. Second, exploiting cross-state variation in tax incentives, we show that audits constrain underreporting and mitigate the downward bias in measured productivity. Together, these results highlight the underrated importance of financial reporting quality driving firm productivity. |
| Keywords: | Management, productivity, accounting, auditing |
| JEL: | D24 G3 L2 M2 M40 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-72 |
| By: | Mota, Jose |
| Abstract: | A large body of research has established the importance of international remittances as an insurance mechanism against income shocks in developing countries. However, households have additional self-insurance mechanisms, including precautionary savings, labor supply adjustments, and multiple earners. This paper develops a model with heterogeneous two-member households and endogenous international remittances to study the relationship between remittances from overseas workers and other self-insurance mechanisms. I calibrate the model with data from the Dominican Republic, and then use the model to decompose the relative importance of the self-insurance mechanisms used by non-migrant households and households with overseas workers. I find that the response of household behavior (remittances, labor supply, and savings) differs greatly depending on whether the household is a migrant or non-migrant household and on whether the shock hits the overseas worker (usually male) or the left-behind family member (usually female). Allowing for correlated wage shocks within non-migrant households further highlights the insurance benefits of migration by reducing joint exposure to local shocks and altering the composition of self-insurance mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Remittances; self-insurance; intra-household risk sharing; labor supply |
| JEL: | D13 D14 F24 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126670 |
| By: | Lemos, Sara (University of Leicester); Popov, Sergey V. (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | No empirical evidence has ever been reported that the large inflow of accession immigrants – following the 2004 expansion of the European Union – led to a fall in wages or employment, or a rise in unemployment in the UK between 2004 and 2006. Given its unprecedented scale and pace – one of the largest UK immigration inflows on record – the lack of evidence of adverse effects is striking. This immigration shock was unexpectedly larger and faster – as well as more concentrated into areas and occupations – than anticipated, seemingly more akin to an exogenous supply shock than most immigration shocks. This means that there was less scope for anticipated labour market adjustments in the lead up to May 2004: adjustments which might have lessened any adverse impact of the shock. The initial heated debate about the striking lack of evidence of adverse effects gradually turned into a tenuous consensus that this large and fast shock was absorbed without substantial adverse effects on wages or employment. Exploiting rich but underused data from the Lifetime Labour Market Database (LLMDB) we estimate the effect of this immigration shock on wages, employment and unemployment of natives and previously existing immigrants in the UK. We confirm once again the finding of little evidence that the inflow of accession immigrants led to a fall in wages, a fall in employment, or a rise in unemployment of natives in the UK between 2004 and 2006. However, we uncover, for the first time, novel evidence of adverse employment and unemployment effects for low paid existing immigrants as a result of the accession immigration inflow. This is more severe for low paid immigrants and young low paid immigrants as well as for long term unemployed immigrants. |
| Keywords: | immigration; employment; wages; Central and Eastern Europe; UK |
| JEL: | J22 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2025/24 |
| By: | Matteo Gamalerio, Massimo Morelli, Margherita Negri |
| Abstract: | We show that policies using plurality rule to elect their policymakers are more likely to adopt more restrictive immigration policies than those using dual-ballot systems. Plurality rule provides stronger incentives for right-wing, anti-immigrant parties to run alone, as opposed to joining a coalition with other right-wing parties that offer a less restrictive immigration policy. We prove the result theoretically and empirically. Our theoretical results hold with sincere and strategic voters, with and without endogenous turnout, and can be extended to the comparison between plurality rule and proportional representation without majority bonuses in parliamentary elections. Empirically, we combine municipal-level data on migration-related expenditures and mayoral elections and establish causality using a regression discontinuity design. |
| Keywords: | Electoral Rules, Immigration, Salience |
| JEL: | D72 J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp25260 |
| By: | Palladino, Marco G.; Bertheau, Antoine; Hijzen, Alexander; Kunze, Astrid; Barreto, Cesar; Gülümser, Dogan; Lachowska, Marta; Lassen, Anne Sophie; Lattanzio, Salvatore; Lochner, Benjamin; Lombardi, Stefano; Meekes, Jordy; Muraközy, Balázs; Nordström Skans, Oskar |
| Abstract: | We quantify the role of gender-specific firm wage premiums in explaining the private-sector gender gap in hourly wages using a harmonized research design across 11 matched employer-employee datasets — ten European countries and Washington State, USA. These premiums contribute to the gender wage gap through two channels: women’s concentration in lower-paying firms (sorting) and women receiving lower premiums than men within the same firm (pay-setting). We find that firm wage premiums account for 10 to 30 percent of the gender wage gap. While both mechanisms matter, sorting is the predominant driver of the firm contribution to the gender wage gap in most countries. We document three patterns that are broadly consistent across countries: (1) women’s sorting into lower-paying firms increases with age; (2) women are more concentrated in low-paying firms with a high share of part-time workers; and (3) women receive about 90 percent of the rents that men receive from firm surplus gains. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, firms, cross-country comparison, J24, J31, J71, C52, fi=Tulonjako ja eriarvoisuus|sv=Inkomstfördelning och ojämlikhet|en=Income distribution and inequality|, fi=Työmarkkinat|sv=Arbetsmarknad|en=Labour markets|, |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:181 |